Everywhere I Go: Learning to See JesusSampel

GOD LOVES THE UNLOVELY Down in South Georgia, a little family of sharecroppers struggled to make ends meet. They never seemed to have enough to go around, but one year they planted at just the right time, the rains were plentiful, and the market conditions were right. After they gave the landowner his share, they paid their bills and had a little bit left over. They decided to buy one thing the entire family could enjoy, and after shopping through the dry goods catalog, they selected something they'd never owned before: a mirror. When it arrived, the husband, wife and children gathered round, and unwrapped it together. The wife looked in it first, and then the husband. Each child took a turn, down to the youngest named Willie - a small, deformed child whose mouth was misshapen and scarred. He stood before the mirror a long time before he turned to his mother. "Did you always know I looked like this - different from the others?" She said, "Yes, Willie." He said, "Momma, you mean I always looked like this, and you loved me anyway?" She said, "Yes, Willie. I love you because you are mine. You belong to me." Isn't it a relief to know God has always known us, with our shortcomings, our flaws and sinful ways, and He loves us anyway? We were sinners when Christ died for us - not "cleaned up saints." He loves us because He gave His Son to die for us.